Reclaiming Power: The Art of Radical Love and Self Expression

Human Incarnate

Vixen Hennig

Acrylic on stretched canvas

Self Tying

Vixen Hennig

Acrylic on stretched canvas

What We Carry, What We Heal

Madeleine

What We Carry, What We Heal uses a pottery bowl to explore the experience of harm, survival and growth. Two red handprints pressed onto the outside of the bowl symbolize the violence and lasting systemic oppression that survivors of sexual violence face. Inside the bowl rest paper leaves, each delicate on its own but strong when abundant. They represent fragility, resilience, and the ongoing process of reclamation. 

What We Carry, What We Heal, is a reminder of the significance of patience and transformation. It urges us to hold space for our past while actively fostering an environment for radical love, a force that can heal and transform. 

Pottery and paper

The Robbery

Margret

Song

“Untitled Piece” 2 of 8 in the “Warren Eight” series

Zoe Ellis

April 2023, after moving into a group home from complications to my mental illness, stemmed by my Sexual Assault, the second piece in the “Warren Eight” Series was created. This piece focused on the exact moment when the encounter that started out consensual, became sexual assault. Throughout the Warren Eight series, I am wearing the same blue dress I wore when I was raped; the very one he asked me to wear days prior. Blue dresses had once been a reminder of the shame I felt, but now have become an integral part of my wardrobe as a symbol of survival and perseverance. 

Coloured pencil on MDF

Clay Body & Landscape in Blue

Jay Gronlund-Tyler

Greenware handbuilt ceramic sculpture

Corset pattern cut from oil painting then sewn onto stretched canvas with red button thread

Remember.

Franny

“Do you remember?” is a prose work that takes readers back in time to walk through a vivid and traumatic experience that has been engraved into the author’s memory. It intertwines the affection and naiveness of young love, followed by the pain and betrayal of a non-consensual experience. The work also conveys the lingering questions of whether the assaulter still reflects on the impact they had, or if they even thought about it at all. The work explores the themes of memory, trauma, consent, and the painful attempt to find peace with an experience that shaped the author’s life.

Prose

Lust

Callie White

Acrylic paint

Radical Sisterhood

Ivanna Nicholson

Poetry + digital art

Get Naked

Ivanna Nicholson

This piece, titled “Get Naked”, is about reclaiming power and finding freedom in the body. For many, the human body is surrounded by shame, silence, or taboo, especially in the context of sexual assault. Survivors are often made to feel as though their bodies are not their own, or that their worth is tied to someone else’s control. By choosing to represent myself openly, I am reclaiming ownership of my body, my image, and my narrative.

The phrase “get naked” is not about vulnerability in a harmful sense, but about radical self-acceptance. Nudity, in this work, symbolizes honesty, healing, and the refusal to hide. Drawing my own form is an act of body positivity—it is a way of saying that comfort in one’s own skin is powerful, even revolutionary, in a culture that often dictates what bodies should look like or how they should be valued.

This artwork challenges the taboo of the human body while honoring resilience. It is both a personal and collective statement: a reminder that our bodies belong to us, and that embracing them—without shame—is a step toward reclaiming power after trauma. (this is for the drawing piece)

Pencil crayon

got a light?

Haley Bueckert

Poetry/prose

Is it safer?

Moira Fearnley

Is it safer? Was made through the thought process that with the uncertainty of the future of reproductive care, it often feels like a safer option to remove one's reproductive organs, just in case. The fear of sexual violence is only made worse by the barriers to reproductive care within the healthcare system. While still accessible in Canada, people going through pregnancy resulting from sexual violence are slowly losing access to care such as abortions in the western world. If that trend continues, will the most certain way to prevent that become surgeries such as hysterectomies? Would it be acceptable for that to be the only option?

This work is a depiction of a uterus, sectioned off by colour into the parts removed (orange) and left in (blue) during the most common form of hysterectomy, the Total Hysterectomy. The jumbled mess of string is the complex feelings surrounding the current state of reproductive health paired with the threat of sexual violence. And how someone’s own organs can be used against them in both cases. Leading to feeling ‘strung up’ by one’s own body.

Yarn glued on Ibuprofen consumer information sheet,

permanent marker

Unworldly, in Your World

Moran T

Moran portrays the translation from their reality into the freedom of their imagination. Moran is found caressed by the earth, but no longer bound, and crafts their own world, underneath the guidance of their hand. Moran combines organic and static forms to depict their life events symbolically. Through the richness of colour, Moran depicts the light that emanates from their own life itself. Moran paints their existence beyond their physical being, one that is no longer tangible— one that is unworldly in your world.

Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas

Ang Aking Buhok (𝘔𝘺 𝘏𝘢𝘪𝘳)

Moran T

Moran T examines the unfiltered expression of self identity through their autoethnography titled, "Ang Aking Buhok (𝘔𝘺 𝘏𝘢𝘪𝘳)”. Through their own voice and the voices of their parents, spoken in two different dialects and two languages, Moran crafts a deeply personal narrative about their hair, reflecting on the parental and cultural influences that urged them to cut it.

Written and directed by Moran T, they reveal in which Filipino cultural practices impact self expression. Moran’s uses their parents' voices as a reclamation of the power of their hair, figuratively used as a way to rewrite their experiences as a child.

Including over 300 frames of stop motion cyanotype, Moran dances to a piece they play on the piano titled, “Cariñosa,” symbolizing the time and movement in which their hair translates. 

“Ang Aking Buhok (𝘔𝘺 𝘏𝘢𝘪𝘳)” is threaded by the vulnerability that accompanies the act of choice— the rebirth of Moran’s hair is exhibited through the combination of personal narrative with raw, self-expression. The dynamic interplay of storytelling and visual arts captures the intimate journey of self transformation, and the eagerness for the freedom of one’s true self.

Autoethnography

Ang Aking Buhok (𝘔𝘺 𝘏𝘢𝘪𝘳)

Moran T

In the corresponding cyanotype, also titled, “Ang Aking Buhok (𝘔𝘺 𝘏𝘢𝘪𝘳)”, Moran is seen clothed in the second best shelter, that is their hair. With scissors placed over their head, out of reach, Moran’s central perspective heightens the dominance and liberty over their experiences— a true reclamation, resurrection, of the story about their hair.

Cyanotype on hot press watercolour paper

threads of love

Melissa

Construction paper, pencil, coloured pencil

Reclamation of Body

Megan

I painted this a few years ago in a response to bring awareness to the sex worker community. I worked closely with sex workers in the industry using pictures they sent me where they felt empowered in their bodies. They chose to stay anonymous.

Acrylic painting on canvas

Moon Maiden

Megan

Acrylic painting on canvas

Ghosts of My Own

Lisa Mutch

Poetry and photography

Loss is a Hurricane

Lisa Mutch

Poetry and photography

Howling

Lisa Mutch

Poetry and photography

Wonder Woman in 2025

Lisa Mutch

Acrylic and pen painting

Roots of Resilience

Juan Lako

Roots of Resilience showcases what becomes possible when healing begins from the inside out—redefining masculinity, reclaiming love, and rewriting the narrative by first finding it within yourself. These portraits testify to strength, resilience, and an unapologetic power that refuses to perform or soften. With no facial expression, the images embody a quiet defiance and presence—bold, still, and unyielding.They are a testament to the power of looking inward, of loving oneself loudly without words, and of standing firmly in one’s truth. Through this work, I invite viewers to see themselves reflected—not as society expects them to be, but as they truly are: resilient, powerful, and unapologetically whole.

Photography

That's a Man

Juan Lako

Poetry